


The Song of Two Birds

by Metis_Ink



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationships, F/F, Fluff, Major Endgame Spoilers, cries over girlfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:46:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metis_Ink/pseuds/Metis_Ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The end comes, goes, and brings her to a new beginning.</p><p>Agria wakes up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Song of Two Birds

**Author's Note:**

> Where is the Agreia fanfiction.
> 
> Dedicated to Colour.

When Agria wakes up, all she sees is light.

At first, she believes she’s dead, with the weightlessness and warmth on her cheeks. There’s a detachment from her body that had burdened her all of those years. The one that nearly died in the fire, the one that had been saved above her mother’s, the one that had toiled and killed in a life of madness, gone. It’s amazing, frightening, confusing, but she doesn’t admit that.

The moment doesn’t last long as she comes to. Soon, she begins to feel too human, much too alive than she should be. She can feel the soft lines of cotton beneath her fingertips and the stinging pain in her arms and ribs. It doesn’t make sense. She if she’s alive, she should move, but why is she even alive?

Agria remembers the death grip of that girl. She wouldn’t let go, refused to let her fall. That wasn’t how the story was supposed to go. Not to be saved by a pathetic woman who couldn’t even think of herself, let alone Agria. She let go, and watched as the girl’s face twisted into one of horror and pain.

The pain was not instant, not brief. Agria remembers lying there with a smile on her face, trying not to dream of her mother, who had held her close the night before the fire, telling her stories of faraway princess and runaway knights. Trying not to remember Prinn, who had been the only one to see her cry after Agria found out that she was the only one left. Trying not to think about Bobo, who she could tell all of her secrets to and would always deliver without fail.

Trying not to think of Leia, who ran away crying when Agria told her how useless she was, how she ran off in tears when Agria told her how that boy would never love her back, who held on with watering eyes, not allowing the same girl who tried to kill her again and again to die.

Agria didn’t want her final thoughts to be of that girl, blood lapping at her hands and legs and muscles bruised and battered as she took her final breaths. She looked over at Presa, lifeless eyes and mangled body meters away from her own, and slipped away.

But death never came, and she had awoken to this lowly, unalluring house in Nia Kerah.  It was pathetic, almost cruel the way she had awoken, pain searing through her bones.

It’s not just her imagination, she believes. She can’t feel her legs.

* * *

 

 

The first person she meets is the newest village elder. Agria knows what happened with that freakish blue spirit woman, how she massacred all of the elders. She doesn’t feel bad when she wishes she could have seen it happen. She can relate, she’s done it before.

The elder explains to her how they found her at the edge of the cliff, bruised and bloodied and knocking on death’s door. They though she was dead, but when the found her pulse, they did everything they could to keep her alive. Brought her back, healed her, patched up her wounds, all of that jazz.

“And why the hell would you do that?” Agria asks with a demented smile, almost laughing at the vision of these worthless people fretting over her half-dead body. After all, _these_ are the people that worshiped that whelp of a fake deity, and where was she now? Dead and gone.

The elder, to her frustration, just smiles. “We couldn’t let anyone else in need die in our hands,” he tells her, a solemn look casting over his face.

Agria lets out a mocking laugh, chuckling to herself. “Well you’re all morons then.”

The lines drawn over the elder’s forehead deepen; his expression almost looks like one of pity. It’s annoying.

Agria gives out a heavy sigh, turning her head from the elder’s. “Well? What happened while I was in this damn hole?”

The elder is silent for a moment, mulling over her vulgar words. She almost expects him to just hike out and leave her there in a fit before he answers, “A new world has merged with our’s. It is called Elympios.”

Elympios. That place that Exodus was obsessed with. Where that army had come from when the Lance had fired. The origin of the army that killed Jiao. That home of Presa’s bastard ex. The place that was supposed to wither up and die.

As if she wouldn’t know what it was.

He continues on, telling her of how Gaius took over and that old man with the ponytail became his new right hand since Wingul had died. How Maxwell had returned home, and then disappeared to dwell with the spirits. How everything was all butterflies and rainbows now and that they could live in all live in peace.

The elder leaves to the sound of her howling laughter. She can’t help it. It’s all so hilarious.

* * *

 

Agria’s not surprised when the Leia comes, the girl with the big, gaudy headdress and puppy-dog eyes. It’s just a week after she woke up and now she’s there, hands behind her back and a sad smile pressed over her lips.

“I… I heard… I came as soon as I could.”

“The hell would you do that?”

The girl shuts her eyes tight, mouth quivering and smile widening, tears at the edges of her light eyelashes. Again, it’s not the reaction Agria expects.

“It really is you,” she says, her voice small. She shoulders tremble as Agria hears a tiny sob. Jeez, it’s like this girl is always crying whenever she sees Agria’s face. She wonders why she keeps coming back.

“No duh.” Agria groans. “Well? What do you want?”

Leia rubs tears from her eyes and looks at her, stepping forward ever so slightly. “You’re not getting up in my face like you used to,” she says, and well, was that what she was waiting for? Was this girl some masochist or something?

“A little hard to do when you can’t move.” Agria gives a dry snicker and smacks a hand over her unmoving knee. She doesn’t feel it, it’s a little hard to get used to.

The girl frowns, something sad and sympathetic. Agria wants to smack some sense into her, sympathy was for children who fell and skinned their knees.

Leia talks quietly about useless things, like how worried she was and how she thought Agria was dead. It was obvious, all thinks Agria already knew. Why doesn’t she just pull up a seat and tell her how she saved the world?

“It’s must be pretty lonely here, huh?”

Agria leans back in the bed, arms perched up against the sheets behind her. She rolls her head over her shoulders and gives Leia a judging look. “What’s with this cheesy crap?”

“Well, aren’t you? You’re surrounded by strangers and can’t do anything by lie around all day so…” Leia trails off, her lips pursed.

“Well, well, way to rub in salt over my poor soul, pimple,” Agria whines, clutching a dramatic hand over her chest. The girl then begins to panic.

“I-I didn’t mean it like—”

Agria then clutches her stomach, laughing hard and madly. “You’re such a joke! Can you not understand sarcasm or are you just that stupid?”

Leia is then staring at her, fists bundled tight and face hot red in embarrassment and frustration. Perfect, Agria thinks. It’s her favorite look on the nurse wannabe.

“That’s not true!” the girl protests, taking another step forward, so that she’s standing right next to the bed, staring down at Agria with a tight face and planted feet.

“Not true?” Agria drones. “You must be _blind_ , little girl. Have you _looked_ in a mirror lately?”

Leia looks like she’s about to explode into a heated fury. Agria would love to see it, and she waits in anticipation for it. But instead, the girl stands up, fixes her hands onto her hips and puffs out her chest, declaring, “You’re coming with me."

* * *

 

Leia has exceeded her expectations. She’s not stupid, she’s a dumbass.

“You’re coming with me,” did not translate into “I am going to drag you across Nia Kerah to teach you a lesson about morals.” Agria as fully prepared to give her a full-blown speech about how she was immobile and was _incapable of doing so at that moment_.

But that wasn’t the case, which Agria realized the moment she was being shipped off to Leronde with a dumbass wearing a huge flower headdress.

Of course, Leia had the time of her life, telling her jokes and stories Agria didn’t care about the entire way, and getting way too used to Agria’s insults for her liking. Before she knew it, she was being rolled into the Leronde family clinic, watching Leia greet a woman that looked way too familiar, and swearing that she could have seen the name _Mathis_ blazed on the sign out front.

“Oi, pimple,” she growls, clutching the armrests of her cheap, wooden wheelchair. “This your boyfriend’s house?”

Agria doesn’t have to turn around to know the girl is blushing, she can feel the heat radiating all the way down to her hands, jerking at the handles of the wheelchair. “Ye— No! He’s not my boyfriend!”

“Oh, of course,” Agria says, rolling her head over her shoulder. “He’s having fun without you, off over in _Fennmont_ since he doesn’t—”

The taunt is cut short when one of the doors slides open and a man with square shoulders and a too-serious face walks out into the clinic room. He looks more ready to kill a man rather than save a life. It’s like he hasn’t smiled at all his entire life. Agria smiles every day, it’s good for her health.

“Who is this cracker?” Agria says, picking her head up in a bored manner to the newcomer.

“Is it the new trend to destroy your own legs?” he says, looking over at Leia, who looks down and rubs the back of her head. “You look too happy about that.”

“I think it’s better than the alternative,” the girl admits.

 _And why is that again?_ Agria rolls her eyes.

“And besides, you helped Milla and you’re helping Marna. I think Agria could use some of that magic too!” Leia puts on one of her stupid grins and looks over at Agria.

“I don’t need magic,” Agria says. What the hell was this girl?

The doctor looks over at Agria, his expression unchanging, and gives her a long, hard stare. Agria is sure to give him her best smile in return, chuckling at their expense. He then looks at her legs, wrapped up tight in gauze and like stones to her body.

The doc turns to Leia. “I’ll give her an examination, and we can see what happens then.”

Leia then beams so bright it hurts Agria’s eyes. “Yes, sir!” she cheers, and then begins to help Agria onto the bed.

Agria doesn’t protest. Much. It’s not like any of their work will do anything, so she might as well humor them.

She doesn’t have anything better to do.

* * *

 

Not too long afterwards, Doc jaunts in and tells her the good news, to put it one way. He can fix her up with surgery and physical therapy, to get her walking again, that is. Agria doesn’t know why he would bother, but not being able to walk is very inconvenient. After all, it got her thrown into this dump.

He then tells her that it will take her at least a year or two of physical therapy to get her walking again, which will be extremely painful, not to mention frustrating. Agria laughs at the thought of excruciating pain and tells him to hit her with all he’s got. Just try and make her walk, she wants to see it.

The girl is thrilled to hear it, expectantly. She gives her a long string of encouraging words, that it’ll all be worth it, and that even though it may be hard, she’ll be there to help her.

“You think I need _your_ help?”

Leia just grins. “Well, I’ll be here whenever you do.”

* * *

 

The preparations for the surgery take a while after that. Leia keeps bringing Agria her clothes to change into, so that every day, all Agria smells is the inn’s scent of lavender and fresh-cooked curry. She continues to spend her days in a bed, bored with seconds like hours. Leia comes over every day to deliver food and clothes and everything else she asks for, when she’s up for a joke.

The doctors, as she suspected, turn out to be lover-boy’s parents. He obviously didn’t get much from his father, being the splitting image of his mother, personality and all. Leia walks around the clinic like it’s her second home, she notices, knowing every nook and cranny and crack and tile.

There are towns people day in and day out, sometimes occupying the bed next to her’s for a little while. Sometimes they’re senile old men and sometimes strained miners. She tries to drone them out, but then sometimes decides to have a little fun.

Leia scolds her about it all later. She’s so wrung-up and serious about it and it’s completely amusing.

(But after that, she sets the tray of food by her nightstand, a sad, tired expression dawning on her face, and Agria doesn’t feel like protesting anymore.)

Soon, the preparations are done, and she’s being readied for the surgical table.

A part of her wants it to fail, to show them how useless all of their effort are. How pathetic this all is.

(But another part comes out of nowhere, and wants her to stand again.)

* * *

 

Agria wakes up in a different room, but she can feel a strange tingling in her legs. They’re still heavy, like logs attached to her hips, but she can feel them there, even if it’s just a little. It looks like Doc really knew what he was doing. She’s almost disappointed.

Leia is draped over a chair next to her bed, mouth hanging open and saliva trailing off the corner of her mouth. Agria wishes she had a marker, watching people wake up with permanent ink on their face was always a classic.

Though the girl must sleep like a guard dog because it only take’s Agria’s feeble attempts at sitting up to get her to wake up. She cries, “You’re awake!” as if it wasn’t obvious enough, and helps her sit up. Agria doesn’t even have time to say anything before Leia’s out the door all of a sudden. In a flash, she returns with a steaming bowl of beef stew and a glass of milk.

“I hate milk,” Agria tells her when she sets the tray down at her nightstand. She’s always hated milk. Apparently Pimple didn’t get the memo.

“Well too bad, because you’re going to be having plenty of it from now on!” Leia says, and picks up the bowl, stirring its contents. “I hope you won’t miss cakes and goodies. We’re going healthy from here on out!”

It was then Agria remembered that the surgery was just the beginning. The real trials started now, with this joke of a nurse.

(This nurse that continued to step forward whenever she attacked her verbally, who ran off with a broken heart and returned with a better one every time, who held her hand with no intention of letting go, and ran all the way over to Nia Kerah as soon as she heard she was alive.)

“I’d like to see you try,” Agria tells her.

Leia looks like she’s up for that challenge.

* * *

 

The new room Agria’s in right next to the one she was previously in, with the same wood walls and cold air. She’s given a strict set of pills of different colors and shapes with every meal on Doc’s orders. Leia sometimes forgets one or two and gets scolded by him, and Agria is always snickering at her pacing around the room and muttering reminders to herself. She’s pretty sure that this girl will be her future cause of death. From the pill or the laughter, she’s not too sure yet.

Leia continues to bring clothes and food from her house. She’s getting a lot more experience since she started helping out, along with her experience as a nurse. If Agria feels lazy or bored, she’ll ask Leia to feed her for some amusement. Whether she’ll refuse or comply is the luck of the draw.

While she’s in the clinic, she meets this kid named Marna. She’s got a voice that Agria can barely hear and legs that just got out of surgery not long before her’s.

“You and Marna can go through the therapy together!” Leia says, making Agria scrunch her face up.

“Why would I want to work alongside a brat?”

Marna’s brother, Sor-something, angrily steps forwards, but Marna holds him in place. “It’s okay. I won’t have to do this alone.” She smiles like she means it. Agria wonders if she’ll be able to keep that smile. “Besides, Leia’s here too, she’s done this all before.”

It’s news to Agria, and she looks up at the bright-eyed girl at her bedside. Leia flashes a proud grin and makes a powerful fist. “That’s right! We’ll get through this together. If I could do it, so can you!”

“Together?” Agria rolls the word on her tongue in disapproval, sighing.

“Come on, Marna,” Soren says, eyes narrowed, and wheels his sister out of the room. Marna waves to her and Leia as they exit the room, shutting the door behind them.

“Hey, you should be nicer to them!” Leia scolds her with that pouty look on her face. “She’s just a kid. Plus, you’re going to be together for a while so you’re going to have to look out for each other!”

Agria groans. “I guess garbage will always talk garbage.”

Leia stands up and sends her a hard glare. “Don’t underestimate how much help you’ll need with this, Agria.” Her tone is sharp and serious. She tries to look stern, but she can’t pull it off, not while she’s reminiscing.

Agria wants to reply, but Leia turns around and disappears out the door. Her hand is twitching, like it wants to leap forward and snag its fingers in that ridiculous coat of her’s. She silences the notion by curling her hand around the fabric of the sheets. She slides down the headrest of her bed and sinks her head into the pillow.

Leia’s clothes smell of jasmine and French toast.

* * *

 

Physical therapy with Marna isn’t terrible. Agria’s been torn to bits by guns and blades, burned and frozen by artes, survived falling off a deathtrap of a cliff, listened to Leia Rolando ramble on from days to weeks to months on end and each time, the processes get easier to deal with. That’s just adaptation.

Marna is the little goody-two shoes she expected. It annoys Agria daily, but gives her something to compete with. Marna may have started earlier, but Agria’s not losing to an eight year old girl.

But it’s not easy. Not being able to walk is different from burning the flesh of her enemies and being burned by her enemies. Everything is painful. Moving is painful, stretching is painful, bending her knees is painful. It’s all a huge pain and she wants it to end.

They spend a lot of their days in the backyard of the Mathis clinic, Agria watching as Leia helps Marna around, playing with Soren and hiding behind trees until Doc comes out and yells at Leia for pushing Marna around too fast. Agria would laugh and point at Leia’s embarrassment, and Marna would ask Agria to play with them again, which would come with another refusal.

Until one day, when Leia comes up out of nowhere after their daily exercises and announces, “Guess who’s joining us today!” and points right at Agria.

Marna’s face flashes on like a light bulb, her eyes sparkling and cheering in the softest way Agria’s ever heard. Soren frowns, pouting a little, and just say, “Fine.” Agria, on the other hand, has no idea where this came from.

“I never gave you permission to do that,” she tells her nurse as she’s wheeled outside.

“You’re going to have to do it sometime, so don’t act so surprised.” Leia lets out a “hmph” and they go up to Soren, waiting over by the clearing. “Hide and seek, alright? You and Marna versus me and Agria!”

Soren then gets this determined look on his face and shoots Agria his most challenging glare while Marna looks like Christmas came early. Agria returns the glare with one of her grins, which seem to faze the kid into backing up.

“You’re it, Soren!” Leia says quickly, catching the boy off by surprise.

“Wait, wha— No fair! I was distracted!” Soren protests.

“That won’t get you far on the battlefield, Soren.” Leia sticks out her tongue at the boy ever so maturely. “Annnnd, go!” Leia grabs Agria’s wheelchair and darts off, leaving behind Soren and his sister in the clearing.

Agria has no idea what compelled with woman to play hide and seek with wheelchairs. The crunching of the leaves underneath is loud and each snap of a twig rings in her ears. Though it’s actually the farthest in the forest she’s ever been.

“This is a stupid idea,” Agria tells her.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got the best place.” Leia replies, before rolling Agria up into a slightly sheltered area with thick bushes and tangled thickets. “Alright, come on.” Leia says, and puts an arm around Agria’s shoulder’s and another touches her knees.

“What the hell—”

“Quiet!” Leia hushes her. “This will distract them.”

“Don’t you dare carry me like a princess you moron,” Agria says, smacking Leia’s hand away from her knees. Leia looks a little disappointed at it. She then kneels in front of Agria, back to her, and they’re ready after a few scuffles.

“I can’t believe this.” Agria hooks two arms around Leia’s neck as Leia carefully deals with Agria’s legs. The girl seems way too excited to notice. Agria looks down at her, pushing herself away so that she’s not too close to the girl but not falling off.

Her neck is thin, she notices. Agria usually notices necks by how easy they could be to slice, the beauty of how good they looked in red. But she’s noticing the pale lines of Leia’s, how similar they were to her mothers. The smooth lines that bridge her neck to her shoulders. The apparent tan lines from the crease of her shirt.

She’s seen this girl wield a staff, clumsily and easy to knock around. But she kept getting up, kept coming at her with her artes, and sending healing to her allies. Agria loved to swing at her, just to see how quickly she would fall. She was as thin as a twig back then, but now she can see the curve of her shoulders, the slight muscle in her arms.

Leia wobbles under Agria’s weight, shifting her patient’s legs to fit snuggly between her sides and the crooks of her arms. Agria hears Marna’s brother call out from the clearing, and she smacks Leia’s shoulder. “Hey, go.” She’s not sure why she whispered, it’s not like this plan would work.

“Right,” Leia whispered back, and stood up straight, dashing across the forest so suddenly that Agria has to grip her to hold on. The woman’s faster than she remembered.

For the first time then, Agria remembers her father, tall and broad, with square shoulders and a permanent from on his lips. Agria remembers seeing the world while mounted on his shoulders, leaning over his head and watching the people pass. It was like she was the ruler, looking down at her people, but that throne had long since been destroyed, burned down with the rest of her kingdom.

She feels a familiar wind sing past her ears as Leia jumps over leaves and thrushes. Soren and Marna must have heard them at some point, because she can hear them near, just a little bit behind.

“Hey,” Agria says, grabbing Leia’s attention,” do you want Doc to yell at you again? We’re going too far in, moron.”

“Almost there,” Leia promises, and slows down a bit to a small dip in the forest, around a thick cluster of trees and a web of stray twigs. She walks Agria around the leaves and stumps, bringing her to a new part of the forest that she never expected. “Right here, isn’t it great?”

Agria looks over her head and down to where the trees disappeared and transformed into green hills. Just below them, stretching across the ground before them is a lake. With dark waters and a lightly shifting surface that laps its dipping edges. Leia looks back at her with the most stupidly giddy face she’s ever made and Agria wants to smack her.

“You brought me to a lake.”

“Isn’t it cool?” Leia says just a bit too loudly, and immediately squeaks. Hide and Seek Champion number one here. Agria snickers at her expense.

Quietly, Leia bends down and set Agria to the ground. Once she’s made sure she’s comfortable, which takes way too much useless effort, Leia plops down beside her and kicks her legs out next to Agria’s. Agria notices that Leia’s are just slightly longer than her own. Well, damn.

“So? What do you think?” Leia whispers, waggling her eyebrows and nudging Agria’s side.

“You must be brainless.”

“Oh, come on! I bet you weren’t expecting it at all, were you? A lake so close to home?”

Agria bites back a retort because, no, she didn’t expect it. She’s more caught off by how this woman used playing a game as an excuse to get Agria all the way out to this place. She would probably deny it if Agria asked.

“You know, this is what Jude showed me when I first had to go through physical therapy,” Leia says in a light tone, looking down at the lake with soft eyes.

“What, lover-boy?” Agria scoffs. She should have seen that one coming.

“Well, he was Doctor Mathis’ son, and the only one my age around all the time. We were together a lot ever since the spyrix explosion.”  Leia tells her, and puts her hands over his knees, pressing her fingertips into her pale skin. “I think he just wanted to get away from the other kids.”

“What?” Agria wishes these people would stop bringing up important subjects assuming she knows them. She never thought she would have heard this woman mutter “spyrix” outside of what happened with Elympios. 

Leia looks cornered. Well, it was her fault for bringing it up. “Oh, uh, yeah. That’s how I hurt my legs a long time ago. I was playing with some spyrix I found in the clinic and they sort of backfired on me.” She draws her legs up to her chest defensively.

Agria can’t help but let out a sharp laugh, making Leia snap her head up to the girl. “Wow, what was wrong with you back then? How the hell did you even find _spyrix_ in some backwater family clinic?”

She can see it now, little twinkle-toes squealing and running all over the clinic, finding that secret, never-to-be-opened door that she was lectured never to touch and doing it anyways. Finding something new to play with, not caring how potentially dangerous it is and picking it up until—

Agria can hear the screams in her head. They remind her too much of her family’s. Somehow, this isn’t as amusing as it should have been.

Out of nowhere, Soren and Marna cry out, rolling past the leaves and trees and out into the lake’s clearing. Leia lets out a surprised shriek that makes Agria forget about everything she was thinking about and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Soren points at Agria and lets out a victorious taunt while Marna just chimes “We found you!” over and over again.

Her laugh, Agria’s noticed, isn’t as mad as it used to be.

* * *

 

Months pass. People are in day in and day out, and Agria is dreadfully progressing out of her wheelchair. Marna falls back, but then quickly catches up to Agria as soon as her little legs can make it. She’s never seen a little kid work so hard because of her. It’s annoying seeing the girl’s crying, frustrated face whenever she fails with the crutches or subjects to the pain, but for some reason, she keeps standing.

Maybe it’s because Leia is always there to pick the girl back up, running over and helping the girl up, cleaning off her knees and wiping her tears. Her brother is always there first, though, babying his little sister and helping her back into the chair.

Marna, for some reason, always looks over to her when she’s done crying, her eyes hopeful and pleading. What does she want? Agria has no idea what kind of expression the girl sees, but whatever it is, it makes her push herself off of Leia and Soren and set herself back into the wheelchair.

Huh, kids are weird.

Leia eventually buys Agria her own clothes, ones of deep red with unnecessary flowery prints. They’re not as comfortable as the ones Leia used to bring her, and no longer smell of flowers and inn food like Leia does. Leia continues to bring her food every day, overly nutritious and completely lacking in anything sugary and unhealthy. Sometimes, Leia brings with her the smell of freshly baked cookies and sweet cakes, and it’s a pain to be around her.

One day, while Agria’s trying to do her stretches, her legs feeling a lot more intact than they ever have, Doc comes in with a proposition.

“Tomorrow, you’ll be moving in with the Rolandos.”

Agria stops moving and looks up at Doc like he’s mental. It’s enough seeing Leia every day, but _live_ with her?

“The hell?” Agria says, and drags her legs out in front of her, raising an eyebrow.

“This is a small clinic. We’re not set up for long-term patients. Everybody is usually local or just needs a patch-up.” Doc sighs, his expression as stony as it ever was. “Leia’s house is a lot bigger. There’s a room on the first floor that they’ve set up for you already.”

“Oh, excuse me, have I _complied_ to this little arrangement of yours?” Agria hissed.

Doc raised an eyebrow. “It’s the best planned arrangement. Since Leia’s the one taking care of you, and you’re already far enough that you don’t need to be tended to by a professional constantly, it would be the wisest idea. Besides, you’re just right down the road.” He shakes his head as if he doesn’t know why he’s even putting up an argument.

“Shit.”

“Don’t use that language around the kids,” he tells her simply before leaving her to her thoughts.

* * *

 

Leia’s parents are a lot different than Jude’s. Agria’s seen them before; sometimes they bring her food when Leia can’t and visit their daughter while she’s at work. Sometimes Leia wheels her down the street and has Agria eat some of their food where it’s cooked best.

Warrick is huge. Not as big as Jiao, but still striking well over six feet, probably even taller than Presa’s ex. Yet, he towers over people with a gangster’s face and the arms of a blacksmith while wearing a pink apron so it’s hard for Agria to take him seriously. It doesn’t help that he’s even more polite than his daughter and will back off as soon as Agria looks at him funny.

Sonia, however, doesn’t take any of Agria’s crap. Or her husband’s. Or Leia’s. Or any of her customers, and Agria respects that. However it’s a double edged sword, since swearing earns Agria a face full of broom and a dinner full of what looks like chicken barf.

(It’s a lot different than her own mother, who preached to her with a quiet voice, and more like her nanny’s, who snapped at her with the vigor of an angry steed and had a tongue with the sharpness of a whip’s. It’s like she’s young again, which makes her feel weak.)

Leia comes in sometimes to check up on her just before bed, though it’s completely unnecessary. She would sit by the end of her bed and check up on Agria’s legs, vitals, are her scars healing of alright, if she’s been taking her medicine, has Dad been sneaking her any sweets, is she sleeping properly, all of that. Sometimes she brings in games and cards to keep them up.

(She cheats at blackjack, Agria’s positive of, but is a complete dunce at poker.)

Nurse Mathis comes over sometimes to check up on her, and Marna and Soren are over all the time, sometimes she’s over at their house (all thanks to Leia). Agria still isn’t completely out of her wheelchair, no matter how much she tries to stand, always ending up on the inn floor, backyard ground, stone road, everywhere. Marna is just as far as she is in that area, but not falling down as much, since she doesn’t try as much.

The rest of Maxwell’s Happy Crew visits sometimes. They’re still shocked to see her around, after everything that happened.

The girl with the doll, Elize, is in school and now doll-less. She’s been learning how to knit and cook from some doughnut-haired woman that always comes with her. She’s always bearing gifts for Leia, and eventually, for Agria too. They’re usually covered in yarn-fruit with strawberries everywhere and Agria stuffs them at the bottom of her drawers until Leia tells her to wear them when Elize arrives again. She’s looks especially happy when she finally puts them on, and it makes Agria feel a little better about wearing them.

The old fart, Rowen, comes with Gaius sometimes, but not often. They’ve still got business to do back in Kanbalar and citizens to work with, so their visits are usually brief. Rowen tells her all about how things are progressing even though she never asks, and Gaius looks at her as stoically as ever. She knows she’s the last of the Chimeriad, that even Wingul’s gone. Damn, she knew the guy was going to die, but she was never too prepared for it to happen. Rowen assures her that her life is important to Gaius, because she’s not just the last one of them, she _is_ one of them.

Jude visits the most. Sometimes he helps her with therapy, but not too much. Agria’s not exactly open to his help and Leia is not exactly the one to share. She’s heard enough about him already from Leia, and she doesn’t need him to rub his face in so much.

But when Alvin’s with him, at the Mathis Clinic, it’s the greatest thing she could ever ask for, because Alvin is always attached to Jude, his arm around his shoulders, Jude's fingers running through Alvin's hair, their hands brushing, shoulders bumping, legs touching, and Doc is there to watch every. Single. Bit of it.

It’s so unhealthily sugary and sweet the way they interact that she thinks Leia would forbid them from being near her because they’re improper for her diet. But it’s completely hilarious how Doc looks like he’s two seconds from skinning Alvin alive whenever he steps foot near the clinic and Agria wants to watch every single moment of it.

But then there’s Leia, who goes weak at the sight of them, how Jude is too comfortable around Alvin, and the expression Alvin’s face melts into whenever he looks at Jude. She sees it too, and doesn’t know that Agria notices how her hands tremble and pink lips quiver. It’s times like then that Agria will tell her she’s hungry, and she should take her back and get her some grub. Leia will whine and groan about how needy she is, but take her along anyway.

It’s strange, Agria’s never felt the emotions she’s feeling now.

* * *

 

Sometimes Leia falls asleep at the foot of her bed. It’s usually the times when she insists she’s not tired between her yawns and her hands are so uncoordinated that Agria sees all of her cards. Agria will just watch her fall over and fall asleep on the bed right there, snoring like a bear and arms splayed out all over the covers.

It’s times like then Agria can think, after a full day of trying to stand and feeling the ground welcome her again and again, watching Leia scurry around the inn from one of the inn’s barstools, breaking out in laughter when Leia mixes up salmon and steak _again_ , taking disgusting pills that only show their use when she forgets to take them and the pain in her legs burns again, getting checkups, doing the daily routine that her life has fixed itself into.

Sometimes she thinks of the past, remembering what used to be. From the top of her father’s shoulders to the battlefield behind Gaius. How Presa used to always try and get her to read, and Agria would always help her burn the books she didn’t like. How Wingul would get into arguments with Jiao on who _really_ won the one-and-one fight Jiao had with Gaius (which really was Gaius). How twisted and mangled Presa’s body had been at the bottom of that cliff. How Jiao sacrificed himself to save them from Exodus. How Wingul flew off and never returned.

But that would be when Leia would walk in, all rainbows and sunshine and tell her she borrowed a new board game from Soren, or how Jude and Alvin sent letters again and read them out-loud. She would then bring her to dinner, sometimes in the wheelchair, sometimes just carrying her.

Agria’s gotten used to the shape of Leia’s body. How her hips glide softly with her waist, neither bony nor flat. How Agria could easily wrap her fingers around Leia’s thin wrists whenever she pulled her over, and how powerful and lean Leia’s legs were compared to her arms. She can see them now, when Leia pulls her body over the end of the bed like a cat, her light dimmed, but still warm.

Agria leans forward, bringing her knees up as far as they will go, and just stares. Those were the legs that were ruined by Doc’s spyrix, and that was the hand Agria had let go of when she tried to save her. It was a girl she had forced through so much distress and pain, and now rested peacefully before her. Her cheeks still rosy and round, and her lips soft and pink. Agria brushes out stray hazel locks out of Leia’s eyes, a fingers twining through the nurse’s soft hair and fingertips trailing over the girl’s pale forehead.

Agria bites the inside of her cheek and draws her hand away. She wishes Prinn were here. Maybe she could help her figure out what the hell is happening to her.

* * *

 

(The trash doesn’t make enough room at the end of the bed. Agria ends up pulling Leia up next to her and kicking her legs out comfortably. It’s too cruel to push her to the floor.)

(She goes to bed with a warm presence pressed up against her back, and falls asleep easily that night.)

* * *

 

Marna is crying, again. She’s on the ground, surrounded by Leia and Soren, who are trying to calm her down. She still can’t stand up. It’s been too long, Doc says. She should be able to stand up by now, even for a little bit. Both of them should. Marna is tired and hurting and she doesn’t know what to do anymore.

“It’s alright, Marna! Remember, you’re still young, you don’t have to push yourself this much!” Leia tries to assure her.

“Yeah, you don’t have to compete with Agria. Not even she can stand up!” Soren tells her.

“Shut up, brat!” Agria snaps at Soren, and Leia throws her a warning look.

“I’ll get Jade, okay?” Soren says, turning around to get his and Marna’s puppy. “He’ll cheer you up!” he says, and darts out of the clinic backyard.

“B-But…” Marna chokes, unable to stop the tears. She wails again, and Leia helps her over and gasps.

“You’re bleeding!” she cries at the sight of Marna’s skinned knee, all bloody and battered. “Agria, watch her, please, I need to grab everything before she gets infected!” Leia says as quickly as possible, and runs off before Agria can even reply.

Agria’s then left there, with a crying eight year old with a knee, alone and unable to move. She turns to Marna, staring down at the girl, unable to think of what to do.

But then she thinks about the past month. Trying to stand up, falling down again and again, Leia being there to catch her or not, while Marna watched. It pissed her off how much she tried and all this girl could think about what whether Agria could do it or not. She remembers when she told Leia how useless hard work was, how she would try, try, and try but nothing would ever work for her. She knows that feeling, she knows it now.

“Hey.” Marna continues to cry. “Hey! Kid!”

Marna looks up, eyes puffy and red and give a loud sniffle. “I-I…”

“What’s up with you?” Agria droned, rolling her head over to her shoulder.

“I don’t…” Marna hiccups, her knees trembling. “I don’t want to do this anymore…”

“What?” Agria snaps. She surges forward to the girl in a fit of anger, only to throw herself out of her seat, kicking the wheelchair back and throwing her hard onto the ground before Marna. She falls disgracefully on her stomach, legs weak behind her and arms struggling to push herself up.

Marna is staring at her, her eyes wet and wide from what Agria can see from the ground. She props herself up on her elbows. Her head hurts for some reason, it hurts whenever she looks at the girl in front of her. She can’t stand it.

“You think…” Agria says, rolling her hips over and feebly swinging her legs. “What do you think you’re saying?”

“I… can’t do…” Marna hiccups, continuing to stare at Agria with big brown eyes.

“What do you think I’ve been teaching you?” Agria says, remembering every time Marna looked over to her and determination filled her eyes. Every time she caught up to Agria’s progress whenever she fell behind.

“What do you think that pimple has been teaching you?” Her voice is rising, angrier. She remembers Leia guiding them on what exercises to do and what games they could play, assuring them of all the things they could do when they were done, when they worked hard enough to walk again. How Agria laughed and Marna pumped her fists determinedly.

“If that whelp could do it when she was your age…” Agria breathes, her knees climbing up to meet the ground beneath her waist. She pushes herself up, raising one foot. The pain in her legs is excruciating, it’s like they’re about to break again, and her muscles aren’t allowing her to push. But she’s not letting that stop her. “Then I can do it at my age!”

Then, she’s looking down at Marna, looking down at wide eyes and an open mouth, breathing heavily. Her legs are seconds away from buckling underneath, and her legs are trembling furiously. Agria bites back a hiss of pain, and pulls on a stronger face. “Get up,” she breathes.

Marna doesn’t move.

“ _I said get up!_ ” Agria screams at her, fists clenched into the red fabric of her dress so tight it would tear.

She hears Soren holler something in the background, probably at Agria, but it’s hard for her to focus on anything other than just _standing_ now. At first, she thinks Marna is just going give up, tell her no, complain about her knee, but she doesn’t.

Marna sucks in her breath and shifts her good knee up, wobbly and weak. Soon, she’s grabbing at the edge of her wheelchair, pushing her body up and choking back sobs at the pain in her legs. Her legs are shaking through the whole process, and all Agria can do is watch.

Marna’s then looking up at her, on two legs, her feet unable to stay still. Agria then sees, right them, both of them are standing. Nobody to help them, after so many trials and errors. Both of their legs can support them, they’ve come this far. All of this way.

Agria then can look over at Soren, but it’s not just him, Leia’s there too. Both of them are speechless, staring, jaws dropped and eyes filled with disbelief, and then pride. Leia looks so happy, proud, relieved, and it makes Agria’s chest feel light.

Agria lets out a chuckle, and she hears Marna laugh too. “Don’t look at us like that, morons,” Agria says through her breaths. “You look stupid.”

Leia is by her side before she can fall over completely, and Soren is by his sister’s in an instant. Agria is on her knees, legs flaring and sore from the effort, but Leia’s arms are around her shoulders as she whispers “you did it, you did it” into her ears, breath hot against her face.

Ha, Agria thinks. Of course, did she think any differently?

Leia is able to patch up Marna’s leg as the girl cries, but not from defeat like earlier. “Soren,” she breathes, smile wide on her face, “I did it, Soren.” Agria must have a thing for making girls cry, but this time she feels a little better about it.

Soren and Marna are eventually off, and Marna waves to her goodbye with a big smile. Even Soren stops when he passes her and whispers “Thanks.” Before sprinting off with his sister, but not before Agria sees the embarrassed flush he had tried to hide.

When they’re gone, and it’s just her and Leia in the backyard. Leia turns to her and suddenly wraps her arms around Agria’s neck.

“What the—”

“You were awesome,” Leia tells her, hugging her tight and pressing her face deep into the crook of her neck. “I’m just so happy, I’m so happy.”

Agria doesn’t know what to do, because Leia shouldn’t be hugging her. Did she think she couldn’t do it? Of course she could.

But it’s Leia’s warmth, the smell of her sweet shampoo and familiar scent of medicines that Agria can take from just her neck. The same feeling Agria got when she felt Leia’s back against her’s in her bedroom, when Leia carried her to the lake out back. All of the feelings gathered up every time Leia picked her up or brought her dinner. Every time she tried to teach Agria how to cook and help out in the kitchen or stayed up all night trying to beat her at poker, not knowing she wore all of her emotions on her sleeve.

Leia pulls back, giving her that smile. One she gives when she’s just so proud, that makes all of the words in Agria’s head just die out. The light of dawn reflects on her features, her green eyes and round nose. She’s close enough for Agria to reach up, wrap her fingers around the nurse’s neck and draw into her something more intimate.

Luckily, she pulls away, and Agria must have missed something because she’s flushed red. “Let’s go back,” she tells Agria, and begins to wheel her back to the clinic so they can get ready to go home.

Well, Agria thinks, palm pressed against one of her warm, freckled cheeks. What a pain.

(Love can be like that.)

* * *

 

After standing comes walking, she knows. Then running, jumping, dodging, kicking, and everything else she used to be able to do. Somehow, it’s a little easier every time.

Eventually, the wheelchair is gone, and Marna catches up just as quickly as she ever has. She feels proud of the kid. Just a little. Except the crutches are annoying to use, and walking has never been so hard.

Elize knits her some socks as a present for graduating from the wheelchair. They’re red with little white birds on the sides, so she doesn’t actually mind wearing them that much. They’re not bad. Leia likes to tease her about her bird socks, and Agria likes to tease her back about her Jude Journal, which immediately shuts the girl up.

Marna and Soren are over a lot more ever since walking became easier. Soren actually talks to her in a civil manner now, he’s even bringing her food from their house, and games, and flowers. He somehow knows everything she likes because her room has never been filled with so many red flowers in her life. He tried to bring her chocolates too, but Leia, Sonia, and Doc got mad at him so he shared them with all three of them instead. It was funny watching him share little chocolates the shape of hearts that bunch.

Bobo is extremely happy his master is safe and sound, and continues to do his duty faithfully, even though the only two people she talks to with him are Prinn and Gaius. Sometimes she just lets him stay in her room, talks to him about her family, about what used to be, about Leia. She no longer feels the madness she used to when she talks to him. She no longer feels any madness at all.

Agria’s glad to have lived this long to see so many expressions out of Doc. Like whenever Nurse Mathis (Ellen, she'll insist) gets mad at him for being too hard on the kids, she tells them all of his embarrassing stories, which get the best reactions.

Jude and Alvin continue to stop by, all over each other and pissing off Doc. Like today, when Jude burst into Doc’s office, dragging Alvin in by the hand right while Agria's in with Leia for checkups. Something must have happened between them because Jude looks Dad and announces something Agria had known since the first time she teased the boy about the face he got around the mercenary. He then announces, hello, he and Alvin are going steady, and Doc looks like Jude just stripped and threw himself off the docks.

Alvin just stares at Jude in shock, and Agria is pretty sure it was not his idea to tell Doc. Jude then drags Alvin back out and Doc snaps out of whatever trance he was in and runs out of the office calling Jude’s name.

Agria looks over at Leia, who is next to her on the clinic bed, and then they both burst out into mad fits of laughter. They stay like that for a while, Leia propping over Agria’s shoulder to keep herself from falling off the bed and Agria bent over in howls.

That’s when Agria notices something strange, looks over at Leia and says, “Hey.”

Leia looks up, laughter slowly dying in her throat. “Y-Yeah?”

“I thought that was just the love of your life running off with his new boyfriend.” Agria raises an eyebrow when Leia flushes slightly and scratches her cheek.

“O-Oh, well…” Leia swings her legs at the edge of the bed, looking down. “I just feel really happy for him now, you know? No more jealousy, it’s like I’ve finally moved on.” Leia looks over to Agria, her eyes calm, sad, relieved, and a million other emotions that catch Agria’s heart.

And that’s it, that’s when Agria can’t stop her hands from shooting out and grabbing the Leia by the collar of her shirt. She pulls her forward, shocking the girl when Agria’s face becomes inches from her’s.  Leia’s eyes are wide, two deep pools of emerald before her own. Their knees brush, calves pressed together and breaths hot against each other’s mouths.

“Agria?” Leia breathes, but doesn’t pull away.

“Nadia,” Agria tells her, out of the blue.

“Na… Wha..?”

“Say it,” Agria demands. “And I’ll say yours.”

Leia looks nervous, but calms herself, breathing slowly. “Nadia,” she says, and Agria seals the deal.

Leia’s mouth is sweet, making up for all of the lack of sugar she has gotten all these months. It’s intoxicating, soft and wet, giving her a feeling she’s never felt before. She breathes “ _Leia_ ” against her lips, and Leia kisses back. They’re both young and inexperienced, and the whole ordeal is so clumsy it’s embarrassing. But it’s amazing and invigorating and Agria wouldn’t trade it for anything else.

She still has months to go, after walking, after running, after jumping and dodging and skipping. She never wanted anyone to hold her hand before, but this is different. Agria will hold Leia’s, if she really wants her to.

She doesn’t mind.


End file.
